“There is nothing to hide.” While Emmanuel Macron’s campaign is parasitized by the McKinsey controversy, two ministers held a press conference on Wednesday March 30 to answer questions from journalists and try to put out a possible fire. Amélie de Montchalin, Minister for the Transformation of the Public Service, and Olivier Dussopt, Minister for Public Accounts, “assumed” use of consulting firms. “The rules of public order are strictly respected”they assured. “Thousands of e-mails have been exchanged with the Senate inquiry committee. We have sent all the documents requested by the senators”argued Olivier Dussopt.
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Claiming to want to be transparent, Amélie de Montchalin denounced “increasingly strong and cruder attacks” and an “political recovery” from some. The two ministers insisted on wringing the necks of “false allegations”.
Asked by @franceinfoplus on the controversy #McKinsey which parasitizes the campaign of E Macron, the minister confides that what “worries him are the false allegations on this report”. She adds “nowhere is it written in this report that the firm received 1 billion” pic.twitter.com/kJW4DNT3JZ
— Antoine Comte (@AntoineCOMTE) March 30, 2022
“The expenditure incurred by the State with McKinsey in 2021 represents 5% in terms of strategy advicesaid Olivier Dussopt. There is therefore no relationship of dependence between the French State and this firm.”
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The two members of the government also made a point of underlining the role which the firm McKinsey could have had. “Decisions are never made by consultants”said Olivier Dussopt. “Have we delegated crisis management to consultants? No, it’s a fantasy to think so or let it be thought”, abounded Amélie de Montchalin. For her, “we have to make the difference between external advisers who provide expertise and then our responsibility, that of the government”.
“Consulting firms are useful when they are in their rightful place, that is to say, neither in place of politicians, nor in place of civil servants”, launches the Minister of Public Accounts Olivier Dussopt. #McKinsey #Macron @franceinfoplus @franceinfo pic.twitter.com/5t1b8Thv7y
— Antoine Comte (@AntoineCOMTE) March 30, 2022
The executive admits that improvements are needed. A new doctrine for the use of consultants was defined in January to ensure that the public services did not have the skills in-house before resorting to consulting firms.
Amélie de Montchalin wants “rearming the State to strengthen internal skills” and plans from 2022 to “reduce the use of external consulting services by at least 15%”.